BWB highlights

Fundraising again – the Fundraising Regulator has given an indication of areas of the Code of Fundraising Practice which will be reviewed next year – and has also now published FAQs about the new requirements for charity agreements with commercial participators and professional fundraisers. See today's Briefing below for details.

At a glance

This year’s Giving Tuesday will take place on 29th November.

Big Society Capital has launched a technical paper detailing how to develop a new social pension fund for defined contribution pension schemes in the UK.

The Department of Health has published new guidance on the Public Contracts Regulations 2015(PCR 2015) for NHS Commissioners, and statutory guidance to support implementation of part 1 of the Care Act 2014 by local authorities.

Charity Commission

Inquiry Reports

The Commission has published its Inquiry Report into Rebound Gateway Group (1141136), a charity providing services in relation to mental health in the Doncaster area. The concerns centred on the activities of one of the charity trustees who had allegedly harassed beneficiaries and misappropriated money from them. The Inquiry concluded that the charity had been seriously mismanaged; not only were there serious concerns about the activities and personal conduct of the Trustee concerned, but the charity appeared to have been run through a trading company with no clear distinction between payments being made to or by the charity from or to the trading company, making it difficult to account for charitable funds or to establish that they had been applied properly. The report states that the Commission considered removing the trustee concerned, but that as the charitable company was removed from the Register of Companies in March 2013, the Commission was unable to do this.

The Commission has issued a press release welcoming the Charity Tribunal ruling upholding the Commission’s decision to remove 1Click Charitable Trust from the Register of Charities. See last week’s Briefing for details of the Tribunal case.

Brexit

Sector issues

Equality - The House of Commons' Women and Equalities Committee has launched an inquiry, in the form of a call for evidence, to examine the implications of Brexit for equalities legislation and policy in the UK. The deadline to submit evidence is very short, next Wednesday 9 November 2016.

Fundraising

FAQs about the fundraising provisions which include that “Until 31st March 2017, the Fundraising Regulator will take a flexible approach in its expectations of updated agreements between charities, professional fundraisers and commercial participators to take into account reasonable contingency arrangements which may be required as a consequence of the new duty.” The FAQs also include examples of practices that may be considered to fall within the scope of “unreasonable intrusion” on a person’s privacy, “unreasonably persistent” approaches or “undue pressure” to give.

Future changes to the Code of Fundraising Practice

The Fundraising Regulator has published short details of a meeting last week with several stakeholder representatives from umbrella bodies across the sector to discuss the upcoming consultation for the Code of Fundraising Practice. Topics covered included issues surrounding consent – in relation to the report from NCVO’s Working Group on Consent; soliciting donations; working with third parties; Trustees and the Code; people in vulnerable circumstances; and presentational issues. The Code consultation will take place between February and April 2017. If you would like to be added as the key contact for your organisation, on to the list of stakeholders to be included in the upcoming and future consultations, you can email consultations@fundraisingregulator.org.uk with your: Name, Organisation & Email Address.

Giving Tuesday

See this press release from CAF about this year’s Giving Tuesday which will take place on 29th November.

Social Finance

Big Society Capital (BSC) has launched a technical paper detailing how to develop a new social pension fund for defined contribution pension schemes in the UK. This paper follows and complements BSC’s successful 2015 policy paper with Social Market Foundation that explored why social pension funds are needed, Good Pensions: Introducing Social Pension Funds into the UK. The most recent paper finds that:

The French solidarity investment fund structure and experience, with a track record of over EUR6 billion and one million savers, provides a strong basis for the development of a social pension fund in the UK.

The UK’s social pension fund could invest in a broad range of socially impactful and public purpose assets (over £70bn), utilise new social investment strategies, and deploy the social impact of the investment as a valuable tool to communicate and engage with individual members.

The time is now ripe for investment managers, social investors and pension providers to work together to develop the first social pension funds.

Also see under social enterprise below.

Social Enterprise

Key Fund has announced it aims to invest in 100 community and social enterprises per year, for the next three years.

Social Impact

New research by Think:Learn:Do commissioned by NAVCA highlights difficulties smaller charities have when using data to demonstrate their value. The research, titled 'In Sickness and in Health', also looks at how local infrastructure can best support them to overcome these difficulties.

Health

The Department of Health has published:

New guidance on the Public Contracts Regulations 2015(PCR 2015) for NHS Commissioners.

Statutory guidance to support implementation of part 1 of the Care Act 2014 by local authorities.

Housing and homelessness

Last week the government announced it would be supporting the Homelessness Reduction Private Members Bill.

Faith based organisations

See this recent government press release about the English Churches and Cathedrals Sustainability Review which was set up by the Government to examine how to get churches and cathedrals on a more sustainable footing. Since the announcement of the Review in March 2016, the 12 members of the expert panel who will conduct the review have been confirmed.

International development

International Development Secretary Priti Patel has launched the first-ever Department for International Development Research Review. The Research Review sets out how the UK will focus £390 million per year over the next 4 years on research and innovation to “help address the great global challenges of the 21st Century”.

Procurement

See under Health above.

The Crown Commercial Service (CCS) has published updated guidance "Buying goods and services: options for public sector buyers". The guidance reminds those buying goods and services for the public sector that they can use the CCS to buy a variety of goods and services via self-service options or procurement support.

Transparency consultation - new disclosure requirements

HM Treasury is consulting until 10th November on the implementation of the Fourth Money Laundering Directive, which is designed to strengthen the EU’s defences against money laundering and terrorist financing. Under the proposals, amongst other matters, the register of people with significant control (“PSC”) regime, which was introduced for UK companies in April 2016, would be extended to apply to a wide range of non company entities, such as CIOs, co-operative and community benefit societies and royal charter bodies. The PSC regime would also be applied to trusts. BWB will be responding to the consultation, expressing concern about the added burden which an extended PSC regime would place on charities and not-for-profit organisations. We would encourage anyone else concerned about these proposals to respond to the consultation as well - see here for details.